At some point a successful company will have to hire or outsource employees to meet the growing demands of its company. Choosing the right people becomes important in building your team. But what if one of your partners outsources the work you gave them to someone else? Is it really that bad?
In a growing ecommerce business, the practice of drop service can be a lifesaver or get you in real trouble. Let’s examine this further.
What is drop service?
Let’s say you need graphic design for a new social media campaign. You pay a marketing agency a deductible of $ 5,000 per month to provide this service. The agency then turns around and hires a $ 600 a month freelancer to do the art. The agency never tells you that they have outsourced your work. Once all is said and done the agency will pocket the difference and you won’t be the smarter for it. This is known as a drop service.
Drop service is not a new concept. Companies have been subcontracting work for ages. However, with the advent of freelance platforms like Fiver, it has become easy to hire incredibly talented content producers such as graphic design, web design, audio / video production, and more. What sets Drop Service apart from other types of outsourcing is that the original agent hired to do the job passes that work on as their own.
Choosing an outsourcing partner that you trust can be a difficult process. Building trust and rapport takes time and effort. Finding someone to get you is not an easy task! Sometimes it makes sense to outsource to a provider and ask them to outsource work to others. They gain their expertise in overseeing your projects and they expand their business and ability to generate profits. With this in mind, drop service or subcontracting is a win-win for everyone: a freelancer is paid for their work, the work is supervised by a professional, and the company receives the promised delivery of their service / product.
How can drop service harm your business?
Drop service can backfire in a number of ways, from a freelancer quitting during the project to material that is copyrighted and redistributed as the original. With drop maintenance, the existence of a subcontractor is kept secret. This increases the incentive to cut corners. Devil! Why not? Your name is not on the delivery items.
Imagine a software developer using drop service to do coding tasks that they cannot manage on their own. If they lose the talent behind their brilliance, your business could be a world of hurt. Who is going to fix your code now? Or what if that code is part of another company’s trade secrets?
The direction of work can also become an issue. The client may have certain requirements in common, but this information can be lost when communicating with the freelancer. Do you remember that phone game we played as kids? The message becomes a mess later in the chain. And how much more difficult can it be if the freelancer drops their work too ?!
Then there is the question of cost. Drop service can affect your company’s bottom line. Eliminating the middleman may save you money on your services, but it takes time to oversee the work. If you are a do-it-yourself entrepreneur, look for ways to cut costs and work directly with vendors when it makes sense.
What questions should you ask your service provider to avoid a maintenance nightmare?
When choosing a partner to outsource some or all of your operations, it is important to ask about the workers who are behind the operations. Are you outsourcing or subcontracting? If so, which services? Who oversees the work of the subcontractors? What if there is a quality of work problem how is it resolved? Can you hire a specific subcontractor to provide the services? What working conditions are subcontractors subject to?
These are all important questions that should help you avoid drop maintenance nightmares.
Disclaimer of liability
Speed Commerce Corp. posted this content on April 12, 2021 and is solely responsible for the information contained therein. Distributed by the public, unedited and unchanged, on April 12, 2021 19:04:00 UTC.
